"What in the world are you doing?"
Rae, the tip of her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth, was concentrating on her task.
She finished gluing a prosthetic fin to the back of a hairless laboratory rat, and turned to Mary. "I'm running some tests on GLOO."
"What in the world for?" she huffed. "Did mister Smith authorize this? And didn't he tell you to ditch the tail and ears or look for another job?"
Rae stood up, her fox tail twitching, and her ears slightly back. Then, she relaxed and smiled. Her tail raised and wafted gently and her ears perked up.
"Yes, he did. And mister Arthur told him to sit down and shut up. 'She is one of our knowledge workers,' he said. 'Our knowledge workers make our company run. Our knowledge workers are our profit. You are overhead,' he said. 'If our knowledge workers require an ass kissing, it's your job to deliver it,' he said."
Rae smirked, her foxy tail waving gently and sexily.
"That must have gone over like a lead balloon," Mary replied with a frown.
"Smitty needed to be knocked down a peg or two. He was ruining morale with his high and mighty 'I am middle management, and thou shalt bow to me' shtick."
"More to the point, he was ruining your morale," Mary said.
"Hey, I just want to be left alone so that I can keep cranking out miracles. Smitty was cramping my style. I tried to tell him that we genius types are supposed to be eccentric."
Mary smirked. "Oh, I would have paid money to see that."
"No need," said Rae. "I downloaded the security camera footage. I'll email it to you."
"You have access to the security cameras?"
"I have access to everything," Rae chuckled. "Even things that the top brass don't know about. And they wouldn't care if they did know because they like the money that I am making for them."
"You make it sound like they are working for you."
Rae smirked. "I choose to look at it that way. They take care of all of the little details so I can spend my time playing in my laboratory. They take my inventions and do all of the mundane work of finding a way to turn it into money. It's a win-win. Everybody is happy. Until one of my minions gets uppity and tries to tell me how to dress or what to do."
Mary shook her head. "Do they know that you have that attitude?"
"Pretty much. They are pretty pragmatic about it. I get to play. They get to make lots of money and live in their mansions and drive their Mercedes. Like I said, win-win. They're too smart to let pride get in the way of a good thing."
"Except for mister Smith," Mary commented.
"He learned better," Rae smirked. "He doesn't have to like it. He just has to behave." She paused for a bit, her tail still waving gently. "I hope he internalizes it, though. We should not be adversaries. I need to do my job, and he needs to do his. If he can be happy about the the way things run, so much the better for everybody."
Mary changed the subject. "So, what are you doing with that GLOO stuff? The last I heard, it was mostly used to get revenge on people, and to play some nasty pranks. Are you trying to figure out how to loosen it up after the three day setting period?"
"If someone wants to use my work to figure out how to get rid of the stuff, more power to 'em. I'm trying to figure out how it works, and how to make it more effective."
Mary was appalled. "More effective? There are already thousands of people with stuff permanently stuck to them!"
"And how did that happen?" Rae asked. "Get super glue on yourself, and you can scrape it off. Even if it soaks all the way through the dead cells to your epidermis, carefully lifting the glue and dead cells off will leave you with a tender spot, but it will be good as new quickly enough."
"The people that sell the stuff say that it's a trade secret."
"It's nanotechnology," Rae said. "It actually sends tendrils down into your skin, Trying to lift it off means removing the full thickness of your skin. Even a skin graft won't do the job. You still lost all of your nerve endings, hair follicles, blood vessels, and everything else. Unless it's a tiny patch, the scarring will be bad."
Mary thought about the implications of that. "If they can do that, they can probably run tendrils throughout your entire body."
"Some people have started mixing and injecting the stuff so that it'll do just that. Nasty stuff."
"And you're going to fix it?"
"Nope. Like I said, some of the other researchers and engineers can have a whack at if they want. I want to make the stuff more effective."
"Whatever for?"
"I want the stuff glued on to be more real. Ever wonder why people don't just cut off whatever is glued on? I mean, this guy who had fake boobs glued to his chest should have been able to cut the silicone off, and maybe leave a thin layer just over his skin. Why didn't he do that?"
Mary mused for a bit. "OK. I give up. Why?"
"It turns out that the stuff sends tendrils up into the prosthesis, too. Trying to cut into it hurts. Even if the doctors knock the person out and try to do it surgically, the patient starts to crash. They can do it if they're careful enough. But again, the patient is left severely scarred."
"So what are you trying to accomplish?"
"I want to make the prosthesis more effective. I want to turn the prosthetic boob into a real boob. Or practically real. Or real for all practical purposes. Being to lactate might be going too far, but at least make it as sensitive as the real thing."
"Your tail and ears," Mary said with realization.
Rae smiled. "Yep."
"What you have looks really realistic. I didn't know that the Fur-Tech products were so realistic. It reads your brain waves, right?"
Rae rocked her hand. "Sorta kinda. As I use them, brain plasticity allows my motor cortex to actually make new connections. I really feel like I have fox ears and a tail. But it's not real enough. Even with the modifications that I have made."
Rae grabbed and hugged her tail. "There is some sensation, but it isn't realistic enough. I want to use the GLOO nanites to make connections into my nervous system so that I can really feel my tail and ears." She brushed the tips of her cute little red fox ears.
Like I said, it's all Laika's fault. Read all about Rae's buddy Lori here --> https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/74835/72-hours-merman...
Rae gently poked the fin that she had GLOO'd onto the rat's back seventy-one and a half hours ago. The rat reacted only slightly. She tested the rat's sensitivity every five minutes until 71:55.
71:56... Poke... Nothing
71:57... Poke... Nothing
71:58... Poke... Nothing
71:59... Poke... Nothing
71:59:30... Poke... Nothing
71:59:40... Poke... Nothing
71:59:50... Poke... Nothing
71:59:55... Poke... Nothing
At 71:59:58, she started gently tickling the rat's fin with a feather. At precisely 72:00:00 since the fin was pressed firmly to the rat's back, it flinched and ran away. Rae tickled the rat's fin again, and it flinched and ran away, giving her an annoyed look.
Smiling, she tapped out some notes on her laptop, then logged off and went to lunch.
On the way out, she stopped to chat with Lori and Kelli, two of her friends that work in the admin offices up on the main floor.
"I'm just saying that you need to be careful with that stuff," she overheard Kelli saying to Lori. "I fully support your lifestyle choices. You gotta know that by now. But this GLOO stuff can't be undone."
Lori sighed. "I know, I know... It's just that I would feel like a poser. It has to be part of me forever or it isn't real."
Rae walked over. "I'm going to lunch. You guys wanna come along?"
Lori logged off and stood up, but Kelli begged off, saying that she had some work to catch up on.
As they were heading out the door, Rae asked, "Is she still trying to talk you out of it?"
Lori sighed. "Not really. She just wants me to be careful. But I can't wait. I just can't!"
Rae gave her a hug. "I know, I know. You are missing a part of yourself, and it's high time you became complete."
Rae lifted her tail and brushed Lori in the cheek with it. Lori giggled and playfully grabbed it. "I still don't know how you can waft that thing around."
"It's all the magic of Fur-Tech. The headband for my ears picks up my brain waves. It took me forever to learn to control everything, but now it's second nature. I think mister Arthur wants to try to lure some of their head engineers over to the light side."
"Oh, are we going to be going into the furry business, too?"
"We already deal with biomedical prostheses," Rae replied. "It never hurts to have more brain power on our side."
"You mean you aren't enough?" Lori teased.
Rae stuck her nose in the air and said, "Of course I am, but I have to give the muggles a chance to shine."
Her ears twitched, then she giggled. Her tail danced with her mirth.
Lori rolled her eyes.
"I noticed that you lost the hat that mister Smith made you wear."
"After mister Arthur made him back off, I finally got tired of using that damn hat to hide my ears and told him to kiss my tail."
Rae waved her tail around for emphasis.
"I still don't know how that tail can be so active. I mean, plugging it in where the sun don't shine can't be that comfortable, especially when you wave it around.
Rae nodded. "It took some getting used to, and it's annoying to have to remove it every time I go to the necessary room, but it's worth it." She hugged her tail. "Anyhow, it won't be too long before it is all stuck to me for good."
"GLOO?" Lori asked.
"GLOO!" Rae replied.
Mary walked in to the bar and looked around. She spotted her old college roommate Marnie sitting at a corner table, looking rather upset.
"You wanted to see me?" she asked as she sat down.
Marnie nodded. "I heard a rumor that some of your researchers are trying to find a way to unstick GLOO.
"I can neither confirm nor deny..."
"I know. But please hear me out. It's our last hope! We've been searching for months. Carrie is getting really desperate."
"What happened?" Mary asked.
"You remember Carrie's old boyfriend? The one she dated just to see if she was maybe straight?"
"Yeah. She was way too concerned about the haters."
"She was concerned about her family," Marnie said. "She had to try to be happy following the 'established rules.'" You could hear the quotation marks.
"I hope they have finally accepted her. They have to know that she tried to please them."
Marnie's face darkened. "They are laughing their asses off. They say that Carrie got what she deserved. In fact, I think they helped."
"Helped what?"
"It seems that Mike figured that if men just weren't good enough for her, she shouldn't have anyone."
"What?"
"He kidnapped her. Have you ever heard of the Chasti-Permalock?"
"But that's fictional," Mary exclaimed.
"He used a huge dildo, some rubber sheeting to cover her nipples and vulva area, a buttplug, and GLOO."
Mary gasped. "He didn't!"
"He did. He shoved the dildo in her front and the buttplug in her back. He also applied nipple shields. She was tied up for three days while the GLOO set."
"That's horrible! But how does she go to the bathroom? How does she pass her menses?"
"There are holes in the dildo. Everything comes out when it needs to. But the buttplug hole is way too small. The doctors had to use a kind of combination hand blender and enema tube because she was so constipated. They filled her with water and blenderized it. Carrie got so horny, but couldn't finish!"
"That's horrible!" Mary repeated.
"And she stopped wanting to have sex with me because she couldn't be pleased. It's so unfair! I even tried wiggling around the plugs, but she says that she can't feel any pleasure. It's like her clit and other nerve endings never existed."
"OK. I'll let the researchers know. But I don't think they are planning on unsticking GLOO.
Rae was inspecting the area where a fin was GLOO'd to the back of a regular furry rat. The boundary between the smooth fin and the furry rat was straight and clean. Scans of the rat had shown that the fur and follicles under the fin was gone. Somehow, the nanites in the Gloo knew that they don't need to be there.
She wasn't particularly concerned about it. She had gone to the same hair removal place that Lori had, and didn't have a single active hair follicle below the neck. And her facial hair was gone. There was nothing left but her lashes, brows, and head hair. After all, girls shouldn't be hairy. Furry is OK, but not hairy.
But one of the high muckity-mucks wanted to know about hair and GLOO, and she likes to keep them happy so that they will let her get away with doing her own projects when she feels like it.
After sending the results of her experiment to the big cheese, she carefully went over a design she was working on. She once again scanned the part of her body that it would be covering, compared it to the design, made sure that the colors were just right, and sent it to the 3D printer. Soon, the carefully designed prosthesis was being rendered in high quality medical grade silicone.
Every week or two, some of Rae's co-workers go to the local bar after work. While Rae isn't a big fan of bars or heavy drinking, she goes along with the crowd just for the sake of keeping the company together. Team building. Everything works better when there is some esprit de corps.
Besides, she enjoys it.
"There's another of those fur fags!" came a slurred voice from a few tables over.
Rae's ears twitched with annoyance, but she held her peace.
Her companion tried to shush her. She just complained all the louder. "Damn fur fags! 'I identify as a unicorn!' 'Look at me! I'm a dragon!'" She looked at Rae. "You give us legitimate trans girls a bad name! The next thing you know, someone is going to identify as a microwave oven!"
"Haters gonna hate!" grumbled Rae.
"What do you know about hate? Do you know what it's like to be marginalized and hated? Do you know what it's like to fear for your life every time you walk the streets at night? All you fur fags need to yiff in Hell!"
"Shut up you idiot!" her companion said. "I'm sorry. I have to apologize for my friend here. She's drunk."
"You mean 'he!'" came from across the room.
"See? Even the gays hate us! You would think they would understand what it's like and join forces with us."
"You mean like you're doing right now?" Rae grumbled.
"That's IT! We are leaving NOW!"
Her companion slammed a twenty down on the table, grabbed her by the wrist, and dragged her out the door, glancing apologetically at Rae as she left.
Kelli observed, "Even if she apologizes later, we know what's in her heart. Drunks and kids are the most brutally honest people in the world."
"Maybe, maybe not," Rae said. It depends on how attached she is to her mistaken opinions. Maybe her friend will convince her of what a hypocrite she's being."
Kelli snorted. "Maybe. Stranger things have happened."
"First she has to change her mind, then she has to change her heart," Rae said.
Lori just looked kinda sad.
"Are you really going to GLOO that thing to yourself?" Rae's colleague Sara asked.
Rae finished removing the prosthesis from the printer and dropped it into a bath of solvent to remove the support structures.
"It's not like I haven't tested everything to the ends of the earth. The only thing to do is try it live on a real live person."
Sara laughed. "You realize that experimenting on yourself qualifies you as a genuine mad scientist?"
"Experiment, nothing. I already did the experimenting, and now I am reaping the benefits. You'll see. It'll work perfectly. I'll show them! I'll show them ALL!" she cackled.
Sara shook her head and walked off. Rae, meanwhile, finished cleaning and sterilizing the prosthesis. She took it to her changing room, along with a kit containing GLOO! binary adhesive and solvent. Ten minutes later, she came out wearing her brand new silicone vulva prosthesis. The timer on her tablet read 71:57:23 and continued to count down.
"So, how goes it on the fishy front?"
Lori looked at Rae and smiled. "We're almost ready to finalize our order. You know how Greg is. He must have measured me a dozen times."
"Good for him!" Rae said. "'Measure twice, cut once,' My grandpa used to say. 'Oops! I cut it twice and it's still too short!'"
"There'll be no cutting here," Lori said. "But you're right. It has to fit perfectly because I'm going to be living in it for a long time."
"The rest of your life, and maybe beyond," Rae agreed.
"But it's going to take so long!" Lori pouted. "First they have to make it, then they have to ship it all the way from Wuppertal, Germany!"
"I hope that Faberge does as good of a job as Fur-Tech did with my ears and tail."
"They're the best!" Lori gushed. "It's going to take such a long time because it'll be hand built. I just know it'll be beautiful!" She hugged herself, obviously looking forward to living the aquatic life.
Rae pulled a fluffy tail from the printer and prepped it. It looked like it belonged to an over sized dormouse. Rae put a drop of GLOO activator on the root end and set it aside.
She pulled the rat from its cage and applied a bit of GLOO adhesive base to its butt, right at the base of its tail. She pressed the tail onto the spot just north of the rat's real tail while simultaneously pressing the [Start] icon on the timer app. She held the tail for a little over two minutes, then released it.
The rat seemed a bit confused by his new addition, but didn't try to do anything about it.
At the eight hour mark, the rat's new fluffy tail started to show some sensitivity. Rae had noted the same result in her own prosthesis.
Rae put the finishing touches on a circuit design that Sky-Tech had commissioned for its latest series of satellites. The highly redundant circuit would automatically bypass any damage done by cosmic rays.
The design, should it work as specified, promised to be a big money maker for the company. It would give the powers that be yet another reason to pay her lots of money and let her play to her heart's content.
She sent the design to the QA department and retreated to her changing room. After locking the door, she tested the sensitivity of her new prosthesis. It was marginally better than at the eight hour mark.
As the 72 hour mark hit, she gasped. She was more sensitive than she expected.
After testing the sensitivity for a while, then again, then yet again, she finally slumped on to her cot and rested a bit. Then, she showered, dressed in her street clothes, and went home to celebrate.
As the 72 hour mark approached for her two tailed rat, Rae captured the critter and stroked its tail. She was gently tugging the hairs at the tip of its tail when it suddenly flinched and pulled its tail out of her hand.
She tried again, much to the annoyance of the rat. It had a little trouble controlling its new tail, but it had no trouble expressing its annoyance.
Rae put the rat back into its cage and turned to another project -- one that she had initially proposed, but mostly farmed out to her underlings.
She had gotten the idea when she saw a YouTube video about a prototype wheelchair based on the Segway. It had multiple articulated wheels, so it could go up and down stairs and navigate other rough terrain.
Surfing around, she found another video. It seems that a man got really tired of always sitting. He was below everyone but the shortest person, and couldn't come up close to anything. It showed footage of wheelchair bound people trying to do simple things like use a water faucet or belly up to the bar.
His solution was to make an upright wheeled support that he strapped himself into in a standing position. He was gleefully happy to finally be able to wash his hands without getting his lap wet.
Rae decided to combine them all.
The initial design was complicated, and it only became worse. The user would be able to sit in the chair and press a button. The articulated frame would then unfold and move the person to a standing position. Or the person could remain seated while the wheel supports unfolded like a scissor lift, raising the user.
Inspector Gadget would be proud.
To top things off, she designed it to still be usable as a manual wheelchair if it lost power. It was cumbersome, but usable.
She decided to make it usable for people up to eight feet tall, just in case some of the webizens of Mer-Mania decided to permanently attach a full sized tail.
Rae looked over the finalized plans, along with the results of the tests of partial prototypes. She signed off on the authorization to build two completely functional prototypes.
Mary went into her apartment, bursting with curiosity. She set the mysterious package labeled "Don't open until you get home!" on her kitchen table and pulled a knife out of the drawer.
She was about to slit the paper covering it when she had a thought. She went to her door and locked it. Then, she proceeded to open the package. On the top was a note.
To whom it may concern (and you know who you are!):
(And if it doesn't concern you, throw this package away and forget you ever saw it. I'm serious. You wouldn't want it to blow up in your face or anything.)
Mary smiled. She has known Rae long enough to recognize her sense of humor.
There is a rumor that some dastardly miscreant decided to make his own Chasti-Permalock and install it on to his ex girlfriend. Such nasty pranks must not be allowed to stand.
Enclosed, please find four prostheses that, when attached with GLOO to the appropriate areas, will attain full function and sensitivity in three days.
I have tested something similar on myself, so I can guarantee that it will work.
But make sure to throw out the custom made male chastity appliance. Also throw out the phallus that was designed to be attached to the end of his nose.
Mary grinned and called her old college roommate.
Rae inspected the rat with the extra furry tail. The hairs that she had plucked were starting to grow back. In fact, they seemed to be growing at an accelerated rate.
"Egg-cellent!" she cackled, dry washing her hands.
Sara shook her head. "You scare me sometimes."
"If I didn't, I'd be losing my edge."
Sara rolled her eyes and walked off.
Rae pulled the large fluffy fox tail from the 3D printer. Her own tail waved back and forth excitedly as she prepped the new tail.
She took the new tail into her changing room and set it on a clean towel. She extracted her old tail one last time. As she expected, she felt a sudden need to use the facilities. After months of only removing the tail to take a dump, her brain was well conditioned to feel the need every time she removed the tail.
"Pavlov's fox" she murmured.
After taking a good shower, she used GLOO to attach her new tail right over the end of her coccyx.
She felt empty as she walked out without her old tail. Also, she was unaccountably sad that her new tail just hung loosely. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move it. She had to wrap it around her waist to keep it from dragging on the floor.
"Seventy-two hours," she grumbled.
She went back to her workstation. Several new projects had come in, so she had decided to spend the weekend getting everything analyzed, written up, and sent to the various teams.
The powers that be assumed that she was being dedicated. They didn't know that she had the ulterior motive of not wanting to be seen walking around with a limp paralyzed tail.
"You're walking funny," Lori greeted Rae.
"You mean like I don't have a stick up my ass?" she replied.
They looked at each other for a few seconds. "GLOO!" they said together.
Rae floofed Lori on the nose.
"That means that I can do this without pulling it out," Lori said as she gave it a gentle tug.
"Ouch!" Rae said as she grabbed it back.
"Sorry!"
"Psyche!" Rae said with a snicker.
"Brat!" grumbled Lori. "Just for that..." She grabbed Rae's tail and cuddled it, stroking it gently. Rae stood there with her eyes half lidded, enjoying the sensation.
"All right you two, get a room!" Kelli snickered. "Some of us have work to do."
"I was here all weekend," Rae sniffed.
"That means you need to come to the lounge with us tonight," Lori said.
"On a Monday?"
"Why be conventional?" Lori giggled.
Rae, Sara, Mary, Kelli, and Lori were just about to be seated when Carrie ran over and gave Mary a tight hug. "Oh, thank you! thank you! thank you! I thought I was going to go crazy!"
Everyone looked confused, except for Rae, who had a slight smile on her face.
"She did go crazy," Marnie said with a smile. "And I enjoyed every minute of it!"
"Until you passed out," smirked Carrie.
"Fucking dykes!" came a slurred comment from near the middle of the room.
Almost instantly, a large gentleman wearing a black t-shirt laid a big hand on his shoulder. "You're out of here! We don't tolerate that behavior."
He tried to shake the bouncer loose. "Fuck off! I don't need to listen to you!"
The bouncer took a deep breath to calm himself. "Leave, or I will remove you," he said calmly.
The bouncer intercepted the punch that was thrown at him, twisted his attacker's arm behind his back, and duck walked him to the door.
After much cussing, the drunk slammed his car door and started his engine.
Rae picked up her cell phone and talked softly into it. A little later, a siren was heard, and red and blue flashing lights flickered in the window from about a mile away.
"He could have killed someone in that condition," Rae said.
Once the excitement settled down, the seven of them started chatting amicably. Carrie and Marnie were happily holding hands.
Carrie looked up as a man walked in. She started to snicker. The man's face turned red and he approached. "You think it's fucking funny, don't you BITCH?"
"You always were a dickhead," she giggled.
"Didn't anyone tell you that you ought to keep your nose out of other people's business?" asked Marnie. She looked like she was about to crack up.
"Why did you GLOO a dildo to your nose?" Rae asked innocently. "Is that what they do nowadays?"
"Shut up, fur fag!" he growled in a low voice. "Go yiff in Hell!"
"Yiffing? That's something you'll never do again," giggled Carrie.
"Oh yeah?" he said. "And how's your cooch?"
"Better than ever!" she said brightly. "Not that it will ever matter to you. You are the best thing to ever get out of my life. I'm so glad you are gone."
"Go away, dickface," Marnie said.
Rae pulled a rat sized rat suit out of the printer. It was very thin, but not particularly delicate because it was reinforced with diamond nanothreads. She smeared the inside with with a thin layer of GLOO activator.
She pulled a very aged rat out of its cage and carefully applied the GLOO adhesive base.
Installing the wrinkled rat into the skin was a delicate task, but not at all difficult for Rae. When she was done, the rat's skin was as smooth as it was when it had first arrived. After eight hours, the rat seemed a little more energetic. After three days, it was as healthy as any young rat in the lab.
Like I said, it's all Laika's fault. Read all about Rae's buddy Lori here:
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/74835/72-hours-merman...
Rae studied the 3D rendering on her lab computer. The face was hers, but with small alterations. It was younger, more feminine, and subtly vulpine. The hair was the biggest difference. It was the same foxy fiery red that she often dyed her own dark blond hair. It had foxy ears, and no trace of regular human ears.
After sending the prosthesis to the printer, she revisited an older project designed to allow humans to breathe underwater. Or, more accurately, it allowed divers to hold their breath indefinitely.
The project was designed to help divers work deeply by eliminating nitrogen narcosis and the bends. If the diver isn't breathing any gas, then there won't be any dissolved gas that can create bubbles in his bloodstream and tissues when he starts to ascend.
The project was technically successful, but didn't make it commercially because it required bulky implants.
So Rae redesigned the implants as flat prostheses that could be held in place by GLOO. She theorized that the GLOO would allow the diffusion of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
She was rather fond of the project, and disappointed that it never made it. She had learned a lot about chemistry while working with the team that created it.
A human uses maybe a kilogram of oxygen in a day, so finding a chemical that could absorb and re-release a few hours worth wasn't as difficult as it might seem. Similarly, the carbon dioxide was pulled out and diffused away.
She had to modify the design to allow the user to refill the oxygen by breathing instead of swapping canisters.
Minor details...
Carrie snickered as the fifth man with a phallic nose came into the lounge and sat with the group. All five of them looked disgruntled.
"It looks like someone has been going into business," Mary commented.
Rae looked a little consternated.
"I think someone is starting a dickface support group," Marnie snickered.
Carrie was busy fiddling with her phone. "Ah, here it is," she said, showing the web page around.
Mary nodded. "I was perusing the site, and reading some comments about it on Facebook and Reddit. It appears that whoever is running the site is paranoid that his ummm... products might be abused. You wouldn't believe the hoops that someone has to jump through to get them. In fact, he promises dire consequences if they are used on someone who doesn't deserve it. Nobody dares test him."
"There's nothing stopping people from making their own with an ordinary dildo," Rae commented.
"Apparently, if you can get ahold of the real thing, your victim squirts white stuff when he sneezes."
Rae looked even more consternated.
Carrie giggled. "I might need to see if I can order some sneezing powder."
Mary said, "I heard that the cops are trying really hard to catch the person who's making them -- not that he is actually doing anything illegal."
"He's an accessory in the commission of a crime. In fact, he's encouraging and facilitating it. Not to mention profiting from it," Rae pointed out.
"Good point," Mary said
"What's stopping the police from finding him?" Carrie asked.
"Well, first of all, the site is behind a few anonymous servers, and payment is made through Bitcoin. The owner has only transferred the money from his wallet once so far, and it was used to buy Linden Dollars. They lost track of them once they got into the Second Life system."
"What other products does he have?" asked Carrie.
"Mostly silicone prostheses that are designed to humiliate the victim. But there is a custom fitted silicone lined titanium chastity device that is sold along with he nose dildo."
"He isn't selling a female chastity device?"
"No. All of his -- or probably her -- products are designed to humiliate men."
Rae walked out of her changing room, freshly showered and with a bald head. She waited impatiently for the prosthesis to finish printing. She prepped it and took it with her into her changing room.
She walked out with a luxurious head of fox red hair, and a beautifully feminine vulpine face. Her face was a bit stiff, but she knew that it would be better than new in eight hours, and fully sensitive in three days. According to her research, her new fox ears would be more sensitive than her original equipment,
Rae carefully GLOO'd a skin suit to an overweight rat. The elastic skin had to be stretched to fit. The rat looked uncomfortable for the two minutes that it took the GLOO to set, but then relaxed. After eight hours, the rat had visibly shrunk.
"I can't believe it!" grumbled Jelinka. "Fucking glass ceiling! The patriarchy refuses to pay us what we are worth!"
Rae shrugged. "I have no complaints."
"Yeah, you wouldn't! You're making the patriarchy millions of dollars! Of course they're going to keep you placated so that they can use you for as long as they can!"
Rae sighed. "That's how business works. You get paid to do a job, and that job has to help the owners make money, or they are just wasting resources. Besides, a good part of the board of directors is women."
Jelinka walked out, grumbling about the patriarchy running the world, and about quislings betraying their own gender.
Jelinka was, no doubt, unaware that Rae's fox ears were more than decoration; that she could hear her even as she was about to enter her inner sanctum.
"Damn traitor! Even supporting that wannabe who thinks that some surgery and a few hormone shots is going to turn her into a real woman!"
Jelinka closed the server room door, still grumbling.
Rae scowled and went back to work.
The gaggle of Yoyodyne employees watched passively as the members of the dickface support group, as they called it, started wandering in one at a time.
As one of them entered, Lori started to snicker. She looked like she was having a hard containing herself.
"What's got you practically rolling on the floor?" Rae asked.
"You see that guy with the purple dick on his nose? That's Professor Alan E. Wood!"
"They guy that used you and threw you away?"
"Now everyone can call him Professor Woody!" Kelli giggled, perhaps a bit too loudly.
He turned around and scowled at them, his purple phallic nose smacking his cheek due to the sudden movement.
Lori smiled and gave him a finger wave.
He scowled. "I'll get you for this, Bill!"
"My name is Lori," she informed him with more calmness than she felt. "And I didn't do it, though I definitely approve."
"Fools!" Rae cackled. "You couldn't find your ass with both hands!"
Jelinka came out of the the server room and attempted to look over Rae's shoulder, but she had already closed her laptop and gone to check on her rats.
"What was that all about?" asked Jelinka.
"I'm sorry, but that information will only be divulged on a need to know basis."
Jelinka scowled. "Messing around on social media during work hours?"
Rae chuckled. "What does it matter if I am? I'm allowed."
"We'll just see about that," she grumbled.
Rae shrugged and petted her two tailed rat.
Once Jelinka went back into her hole, Rae opened her laptop, tunneled into the server, and checked the firewall settings. Sure enough, all of the major social media IP addresses were blocked.
Rae grinned and pulled up Facebook. Then, she went to another browser and continued to do her sleuthing. She checked the archive of the printer queue. Sure enough, several prostheses were printed that she had not authorized. She cross checked them against the 'dicknose' data that she had mined.
She managed to track the shipping of the prostheses and chastity devices. "Idiot shipped from inside the company," Rae grumbled.
She saved the data for possible use with the board. She hoped to get it taken care of without involving the company, though. She also didn't want to involve the customers who had purchased the prostheses. Some of them did, no doubt, have legitimate gripes. She would have to do some checking on the victims to make sure that nobody was unjustly victimized.
Rae decided to go in the other direction. She sifted through the Bitcoin blockchain and traced the transactions to the Linden Labs servers. So far, so good.
She tunneled into the servers and traced the trail to the other end, where the Linden Dollars were turned to Litecoin, and finally deposited into a normal bank account.
Rae documented the trail. Once documented, it could be tracked and verified without actually hacking the Linden Labs servers. Hopefully, that information would be sufficient for the police to track the money trail.
She sent the file off to the police, sent a summary of her findings to management and the board, covered her tracks, and left Facebook up on her screen.
Jelinka quietly walked to the desk where Rae had left the notebook. She thought she was being quiet, anyhow.
As she was scrutinizing the screen, Rae walked up behind her. "What are you doing with my machine?" she demanded loudly.
"I thought I told you to stay off social media!"
"And I informed you that I am authorized. Now go away and stop interfering with my work!"
"This isn't over!"
Rae chuckled softly. "It pretty much is," she said to herself.
Rae pulled a small patch out of the 3D printer and attached it to the rat. After setting it back, pulled out the rat that she had GLOO'd into a weight loss suit and weighed it. It was shrinking just as expected.
She put that one back and pulled out one that had an underwater life support patch installed three days ago. She attached some vital sign sensors, tied a weight to its tail, and tossed it into a fish tank.
It struggled briefly, but settled down. Its oxygen saturation stayed steady. She left it in until the sats started to drop, then pulled it out.
The rat started panting, and continued to breathe hard until her sensors showed that the life support patch was recharged.
The talking head read the news report. "Police, following an anonymous tip, have found the person who has been selling the ummm... devices that were being GLOO'd to men who have a history of victimizing women. No more details are being released."
Lori and Kelli looked at Rae, who was smiling faintly.
"Yes, I was the anonymous tipster," she admitted. That's all I can tell you. Hopefully, the board can keep it from blowing up into a media circus. And the perpetrator has already been let go.
Rae looked at her colony of sea rats.
It took some fiddling, but she finally got the life support patches to work just right.
One problem was that the breathing reflex is triggered by excessive carbon dioxide, not insufficient oxygen. She nearly lost some of her rats when they ran out of oxygen, but didn't know enough to surface and start breathing.
Now, though, they all swim around comfortably and grab food from the special underwater feeders.
They are also smart enough to only drink from the fresh water tank. But they like to go into the salt water tank and get the food there. Rae intentionally swaps the better food back and forth between the tanks to encourage the rats to use both.
"You have done well, my little pets!" she cackled.
Satisfied with her work, Rae sent her next prosthesis to the printer.
Michael Miller frowned at his reflection. The addition to his nose was bad enough, but the frustration due to the chastity device was only getting worse. He was doing his best to not let his wife suffer, but that only made him more frustrated. He again cursed the woman that he had briefly dated a year before he met his wife, and who somehow thought she owned him.
The other victims he had met were no help. From their attitudes, it was plain that they actually deserved what they got.
His phone dinged, indicating that he had email.
He was dubious about the sender being on the level, but Yoyodyne is a company that is well known for its integrity.
Rae pulled the prosthesis off of the printer, prepped it, and carried it into her dressing room.
It looked like a crotchless set of biking shorts. It was difficult to pull on because it was extremely tight. It was padded in the rear, hips, and outer thighs, but tight all over to get rid of the fat that was already there.
The 'padding' was the actual life support system, and also contained the oxygen storage chemical.
The prosthesis was especially tight in the inner thighs so that she could get that much coveted 'thigh gap' that she had earlier tried to convince herself that she didn't really want.
When it was done, and had set the requisite two minutes, she looked quite bottom heavy. She sighed a bit, but was confident that she would be sporting a sleek feminine shape in three days.
"Thanks for helping us out," Rae said to doctor Roberts.
"Not a problem! Always happy to help my favorite foxy girl." He smirked. "Besides, you guys don't skimp on the pay."
"Mister Miller should be here in a few minutes for the final part. Apparently, he and his wife decided that it wouldn't hurt to go a bit bigger than his original equipment."
"He wants a bigger nose?"
There was a knock on the door. Mike and Sara Miller entered, looking nervous.
"Welcome to my lab-OR-a-tory!" Rae cackled, dry washing her hands.
They cringed.
Doctor Roberts, with impeccable bedside manner, waved them to the seats by the examination table. "Don't mind her. Sometimes, her sense of humor is a little... uh... inappropriate."
They nodded.
"Go ahead and get a good shower, mister Miller. The sooner we get started, the sooner you'll be good as new. Better than new, actually." Rae said.
Rae and the doctor helped Mike up on the table. The Valium IV was already starting to kick in. The doc numbed the two affected areas and waited for the lidocaine to take affect.
Rae carefully compared the affected parts to the prostheses, measured, and drew lines indicating precisely where the doctor should cut. She also painted GLOO activator on to the two prostheses.
Sara stood by Mike's head, holding his hand, but staying out of the way of the three people who were working on her husband.
The doctor rapidly cut the phony penis off of his nose with a laser scalpel. The fact that it was self cauterizing made it easier for Rae to put the GLOO adhesive base onto the cut surface before it had time to bleed. She pressed the nose prosthesis to the stump and held it for two minutes.
They repeated the process with the titanium stump that stuck out where his penis used to be. The doctor cringed as he cut it off. Rae quickly spread the GLOO and installed the prosthesis. Not long after the GLOO's two minute setting time, the urethra was reconnected.
The nurse monitored everything while the Valium wore off.
Eight hours later, Mike was happy that sensation was returning. After three days, Mike and Sara were ecstatic, and celebrated well into the night.
Rae walked into the locker room at the company gym. She admired her new shape, then took a quick shower. Once she was done, she put on a sleek one piece, grabbed her special goggles and flippers, and headed to the pool.
With the goggles on, she looked like she had bigger eyes like one might expect to see on a mermaid. But there was more to them than that.
Divers use a mask instead of goggles because they need to equalize the pressure. Rae's special goggles do that automatically.
She dove into the pool and swam underwater from one end to the other, then back. To keep from scaring the lifeguard, she surfaced frequently. She didn't breathe, though. She kept it up for two hours, getting the exercise that she needs to stay sleek and healthy.
The whole time, it felt about like it feels after holding her breath for a couple seconds.
When she came up and started breathing, she noticed that she was breathing a little more quickly. After she detected that her oxygen stores were full, her breathing settled back to normal.
Willy Lowman grumbled to himself as he walked from the bus stop to his small studio apartment.
His attempt to turn Michele Hillman into his own submissive pet had backfired badly. But part of him was excited about the fact that his submissive nature had gone from being hidden to being on display to the world. At least, to his mind, it seemed that way.
The embarrassment of wearing a dick on his nose turned him on, and the knowledge that he would never be able to do anything about it -- that he would never be able to satisfy that urge turned him on even more.
It was almost as if the whole world could see the two inch titanium nub that sat where his useless penis used to sit.
Not that he would ever admit that. Not even to himself.
He walked through his apartment door, and felt the familiar sting of Mistress Helga's riding crop.
He quickly, and quite automatically, got to his knees and bowed his head.
"You have caused me considerable inconvenience, worm," she said in a sultry voice. "What should I do?"
"You must punish me, mistress," he mumbled.
"I can't hear you, worm," she said with a voice that contained some steel.
"You must punish me, mistress," he said more loudly.
"This is a travesty, a crime against nature," she said, "A sub, a bottom, a lowly worm presumes to try to dominate another!"
Her crop cracked across his nose.
Willy simpered, but dared not cover himself or even touch the red marks.
"Strip, worm!"
Willy hastened to do so.
Mistress Helga laughed when he wriggled out of his tighty whities. She flicked the short titanium stub. "One good thing came out of this travesty," she said. "You will never use that pathetic thing again. It is right and just that your only purpose in life will be to service me, your rightful mistress.
The Yoyodyne gaggle, along with Carrie and Marnie, sat in their usual spot and watched with amusement as the dicknose mutual support and commiseration club members started to filter in.
Rae picked up her phone and read the incoming text. She smiled brightly, replied, then dropped the phone back into her purse.
After a few minutes, she looked up expectantly whenever the door opened.
"What's the story, Rae," Lori asked.
Rae put a look of innocence upon her face. "I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about."
Lori rolled her eyes. "You're waiting for someone to walk through that door."
Rae gave a bright smile. "Cathy just texted me. She finally managed to drag herself away from that project. All's over but the shouting, and she convinced them that she doesn't need to be there for the wrap-up."
"It's been hard being away from your lady love for so long, hasn't it?"
Rae nodded.
Rae turned her head to the opening door. She smiled brightly and jumped up.
"Kitteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
"Foxieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
They met in the middle of the floor and hugged each other tightly, their tails intertwined, and shared an intimate kiss.
"Go get a room, you two," Lori grumbled; but she had a dreamy smile on her face.
"We intend to, believe me!"
Willy, after a long day at work, took the bus to his new home.
There was a small smile on his face as he anticipated seeing his mistress. In the back of his mind, he wondered what he would have to do to get her to punish him. He hoped that he would get to service her, since seeing her in ecstasy really drove home the humiliating fact that he would never again feel that pleasure.
He would never service anyone again as a man, not that his mistress had ever allowed it. Maybe she would let him use his nose. She would probably love grabbing his hair and pulling his head between her thighs until he almost suffocated.
He went in the servant's entrance, down to the basement, stripped, showered, and put on his restraints. He awaited his mistress's pleasure.
He had forgotten that today was payday. With no more car or apartment, he had no other expenses. All of his pay went into his mistress's account. She used only a small portion of it to feed him.
She walked into his cell and placed a bowl of Alpo on the concrete floor.
"Thank you, mistress," he said as he waited for permission to eat.
She waited several minutes, then nodded. "You may feed, worm."
Rae and Cathy finally fell into an exhausted slumber at about three in the morning.
Rae woke up at around noon and looked fondly at her sleeping girlfriend. She had removed her ears and taken out her tail during their love making.
Cathy opened her eyes, stretched, and yawned, "Good morning, beautiful! I'm so glad we have the day off."
A few hours later, they discussed Rae's new prostheses.
"I love the new look, and how much I can make you scream," Cathy said, "But I kinda miss that one part."
"I know. I didn't think I would, but I kinda miss it, too. No matter. I'll just print up a new one. You want one, too?"
Rae looked at Lori's order. "I think she'll want a few enhancements," she said to herself. It didn't occur to her that Lori might object to a few pleasant surprises.
She made a few changes, then closed the browser window. Then, she arranged to have the appropriate items shipped to Wuppertal, Germany.
Cathy looked on as Rae pulled the last prosthesis off of the printer and prepared it.
They showered together in Rae's changing room.
Rae carefully installed Cathy's prostheses, then her own. She had warned her that her tail would be limp at first, and her ears would not be mobile.
"We'll have to wear loose clothes for three days. But after the GLOO sets properly, our new organs will be fully retractable. Wouldn't want to ruin our bikini lines!"
"How long before I can control my tail again?"
"You should get some decent mobility and sensation in eight hours. In three days, it'll be as much of an erogenous zone as your neck or breasts, and will have even better mobility than your old FurTech tail."
"But didn't the rats take a while to get used to their new tails?"
"My theory is that we already have the neural pathways in our motor cortex because of the Fur-Tech tails we used to wear. The rats didn't have that head start, so it took them longer to become coordinated."
Rae floofed Cathy's nose with the tip of her tail. Cathy tried to reciprocate, then sighed when she couldn't. She looked at her cell phone. "Seventy-one hours and fifty-three minutes," she said with a sigh.
"And you won't be quite so bottom heavy, either," added Rae. "Then we can go scuba diving without the scuba gear."
Rae was in major hack mode. She felt that it was her responsibility to make sure that no one was victimized unjustly by the prostheses that she had, admittedly, designed. Getting rid of Jelinka had stopped the flow of unauthorized prostheses, but it didn't stop copycatters from making their own nasty little surprises.
She didn't expect to be able to police the world, but she could at least point the cops to the perpetrators, and even point the innocent victims to a couple trusted doctors that could help them.
She found it necessary to point some vigilante types to some of the nastier perpetrators, then document the entire sordid affair on social media.
She looked at the results of one such bit of human assisted karma and cackled, "That'll make certain people think twice before trying that stunt again!"
She looked up as her gaggle of friends came down to her office area. She had had to do a little finagling to get them access to what is usually a very secure area.
"Whatcha doin?" asked Lori in a sing-song voice.
"Oh, just taking care of some external business," she said with an innocent look on her face.
Kelli looked at the pictures posted on FaceBook. "You didn't!" she gasped.
"No, of course I didn't," Rae replied. "I just uncovered the location of yon reprehensible reprobate and passed the info to a group who might want to do something about it."
Everyone had a good laugh. There might be some areas where Rae tends to go just a bit too far, but she is seldom vicious. She tends to be very measured and pragmatic in her responses.
"By the way, how are you covering your tracks? What kind of system are you using?
Rae closed all of the windows and went to the desktop. "I'm using Tails Linux, of course."
Rae waited by the door, looking at her watch.
She walked through the door and sat down. Her butt hit her seat at precisely 13:00.
"Good of you to show up this time, Rae."
"I love you too, big brother," Rae replied.
David, Steve, and Mark rolled their eyes.
Rae stood up. "I see we have some new faces here," she said. She waved. "Hi new faces! Let me introduce myself. My name is Rae, and I'm the brains of this organization. I am your semi domesticated mad scientist. I get to play in my lab and make all kinds of cool stuff, and you all get to figure out how to turn it into money."
David stood up. "What Rae is saying is that she is the designated eccentric genius that does crazy things, and that we let her get away with it because she brings us so much profit."
"And because I exercise my stock options, I own part of the company. Not that I vote very often. I go with Dave, Steve, and Mark if they vote the same. If they disagree, I have to settle it like a good big sister."
"Little sister," Mark interjected.
"Details, details," Rae said.
"Get on with it, little sis. You have to have something to tell us all, or you wouldn't bother showing up."
"I'm glad you asked!" she said brightly.
She walked up to the whiteboard, grabbed a pink marker, and wrote GLOO!, underlining it twice.
"I've been doing some experimenting with that stuff. In fact, I managed to reverse engineer it and can produce it, along with a couple variations. Unfortunately, I can't make it cheap enough to make it worth our while."
"Then what's the point?" scoffed one of the new faces.
"I'm getting to that..." she paused for effect. "Now, where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?" She paused again. "Oh, yes, now I remember!"
The person who interrupted turned red, but held his peace.
"I have found a number of medical uses for GLOO." She waved her tail and twitched her ears. "The fact that I have full control of my tail and ears, and that they are as sensitive as if I were born with them is just the beginning. Any properly made prosthesis, whether it be a replacement body part or an additional one, will attain full sensitivity and mobility seventy-two hours after being attached."
She looked around the room to see if everyone realized the implications of what she was saying.
"It took a considerable amount of trial and error to find the optimum mix. GLOO'd items will generally achieve some sensitivity without using our special formula, but I have managed to optimize it, as well as provide full mobility." She waved her tail. "I can personally attest to its effectiveness. And better still, since we are only providing a slight alteration of our standard medical grade silicone, we don't have to jump through hoops for the FDA. If anyone has to do that, it's the manufacturers of GLOO."
"But if our formula depends on GLOO to work, we are dependent on one supplier. That's a sure recipe for disaster."
Rae smiled. "That's why I went through the trouble of reverse engineering the stuff. They might raise prices, but not enough to make it worth our while to make it ourselves. And if they withdraw it, we'll have the market to ourselves."
"There has been talk of banning GLOO," one of the new faces objected.
"Talk that has gone nowhere," David replied. "Some suspect that GLOO has the ear of a number of government officials, and they may be right. But, more to the point, We The People don't want the stuff taken away from us."
"I think we're all convinced," Steve said. "How about giving us a summary of your research."
Rae told them about her experimentation with laboratory rats -- the fins, the extra tails, amputated and reattached limbs, amputated limbs replaced with silicone and titanium prostheses, and the rat body suits. The last caused some excitement, especially among the older board members.
She also told them about the prosthetic vulva, though she didn't mention who had it attached. She demonstrated her tail and ears, and let them see before and after pictures of her new face, ears, and hair.
"And some other miscreant tried a rather nasty unauthorized experiment. It would have landed him in jail if anyone could have proven that he did it."
Rae told them about the GLOO'd dildo, butt plug, and vulva and nipple shields.
"What was interesting was the fact that the GLOO somehow knew that the victim would need to drain waste products, so it created a hole in butt plug for feces, and two holes in the dildo to drain urine and menses."
"I printed prostheses for a new vulva, anus, and nipples for the victim. I passed them to a friend of the victim. I received a report that everything is working great, though I haven't tested it myself." She made a face.
Like I said, it's all Laika's fault. Read all about Rae's buddy Lori here:
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/74835/72-hours-merman...
And don't forget to read part two and three and...
"The latest information about the continuing saga of the mutilated noses has come to light from, of all places, social media," the talking head read from his script. "More news after this message from our sponsors."
The television cut to a scene of animated anthropomorphic furries playing in a park. The video transitioned smoothly to live humans with furry ears and tails.
"Have you ever dreamed of spending a weekend, or maybe just an evening as your fursona? Well, now you can with our advanced Fur-Tech prosthetics."
The scene cut to a disco with several bunnies, foxes, wolves, dogs, and ermines dancing to the beat. Their ears were moving and their tails were swaying sexily.
"Yes you, too, can shuck off your old identity and be a real party animal. It only takes a few days of practice to shake that tail just like you were born with it."
A beach scene was displayed, with furries playing volleyball, surfing, swimming, and even snorkeling.
"We at Fur-Tech believe that your inner animal needs not be limited to the tamer parts of life. Everything from Fur-Tech is rugged and fully waterproof."
The final scene is a fox and a rabbit walking, hand in hand, into the sunset.
"You will love your new self."
The television cut back to the news room.
"Recently, there has been a rash of assaults, apparently perpetrated by women who believe themselves to have been wronged by men. In order to express their displeasure, they used the controversial adhesive GLOO."
About half way through the spiel, a short video of an otherwise suave looking man played. The dildo on his nose spurted a thick white liquid when he sneezed.
Several scenes of furries, obvious cross dressers, and people with body modifications played.
"Body modification fanatics, trans gendered people, otherkin, therian, and furries have started to use GLOO to permanently affix appliances to their bodies. While some decry this practice, others ask how it is different from tattoos, body piercings, and other methods of body modification. GLOO enthusiasts like to point out that the process is painless -- a great advantage over practices like tattooing, branding, and scarification."
The scene cut to a group of dick nosed men sitting around a table at a bar.
"But, like any new technology, there will be those who seek to abuse it."
Cut to a scene of a woman yelling at a man.
"In the case of the phallic nose assaults, disgruntled people, presumably women, have been using it as a means of revenge."
Back to the news room.
"The police have identified very few of these vigilantes, but they have found the alleged supplier of the phallic prostheses and chastity devices that have been used to humiliate the victims."
A mug shot of Jelinka was displayed.
"Police have identified the alleged supplier as one Jelinka Stupharodisk, a former employee of a major technology corporation."
Back to the news room.
"Social media has been awash with photos and videos of the victims. But some are fighting back. Some of the perpetrators have been caught by vigilantes, who exacted their own brand of revenge."
"It is rumored that some of the victims have been released from the nose prostheses and the chastity devices. They refuse to divulge any information, however. Police are interviewing them because the women who victimized them are often the targets of the vigilantes."
Rae and Mark walked into the same treatment room that they had used to take care of Mike Miller.
"Are you sure about this?" Rae asked. "Once it's stuck, there's no going back."
Mark looked at her. "Are you sure about your tail?"
"Point taken," Rae smirked. "But I still have to ask." She started to pull the prostheses out of the container and prep them while Mark took a quick shower. He came out of the shower and dried himself. Rae didn't react at all to his nudity.
Using GLOO, she attached a black doggy nose, a big golden fluffy tail, and floppy golden retriever ears.
He dressed in shorts and a tee-shirt, sat in a wheelchair, then adjusted the footrest so that his right leg was sticking straight out. Rae slathered his foot and part of his calf with GLOO adhesive base. She slipped his foot into the furry prosthesis, which went half way up his calf. The prosthesis was extremely tight over his foot. After two minutes, the discomfort went away. He propped up his left leg and Rae installed the other prosthesis.
He thanked her and rolled out the door and back to his workstation.
Eight hours later, he could stand on his new digitigrade feet as if they were stilts. After three days, he could move them, but still walked clumsily. Several days after that, it was as if he had been born with digitigrade legs.
Rae and Cathy were sleeping soundly, draped over each other like a pile of cats. Or foxes.
The multiple colonies of nanites in Rae formed several intelligences, and they liked to chat. When Rae and Cathy were touching each other, which was just about all the time that they weren't at work, Cathy's nanites could join the conversation.
Cathy's nanites got kinda used to that, and they got lonely when Rae and Cathy were separated.
Since they had access to the combined knowledge of Rae and Cathy, they plotted. Soon, they were tied into the Internet, and stayed in contact whenever they were close enough to a WiFi hotspot or cell tower.
They decided that the bane of nanites everywhere, the Adhesive Super Solvent, had to go.
Rae looked up as a worried looking mousy brunette entered her office. Not mousy as you might describe a standard slim and timid girl, but a furry like Rae -- A furry with a little black nose, cute little mousy ears, and a long slim bare tail.
She smiled at her. "Hi Clarabelle. Do you need something?"
"Umm... yes uh... I, uh... I want to take off this tail and change it to a furry one. Like a, uh, dormouse? But it's almost been seventy-two hours and I can't find any Adhesive Super Solvent anywhere..."
Rae inexplicably felt a bolt of horror. She could swear that she heard millions of tiny voices yelling, "Nooooo! Not THE DIP!!!"
She recovered quickly, but it must have showed on her face because the girl cringed. "Did I say something wrong?"
"Sorry," Rae said. It's just that GLOO isn't just an adhesive. The nanites have been busy connecting nerves and stuff, and that super solvent stuff is like a hammer. It rips things apart. There's no telling what will happen to your nervous system." Rae shrugged. "Also, the samples we had are no good. There are rumors that nobody can find any that still works."
The girl looked crestfallen. "I guess I shouldn't have been so hasty. It's just that... I loved having the Fur-Tech prostheses, and I though the new tail... But I can live with a naked tail if I have to."
She started to leave, but Rae called her back. "I never said we couldn't do anything about it."
Rae and Cathy turned heads as they walked along the beach. There was some grumbling that two hot babes being lesbians was such a waste, but they were mostly left alone.
They grabbed their fins and goggles and headed out into the surf. They swam among a bunch of revelers who were too busy to pay attention to them, then slipped underwater when a large wave covered their actions. They didn't want anyone to notice because they didn't want to worry anyone. Soon, they were swimming among the fish in the kelp forest.
They enjoyed the freedom of being able to flit freely about, unencumbered by bulky scuba tanks.
Clarabelle met Rae at the treatment room.
Rae held up the new tail skin. "A dormouse tail is a lot like a fox tail, so I can't fault your taste."
Clarabelle examined the tail sleeve, and rubbed it on her face. "It's so soft," she cooed.
It took Rae little time to apply the GLOO and slip the sleeve over Clarabelle's naked tail.
Rae gave her a hug. "Oh, Missy Mousey! You're so cute I could just eat you up!"
"Should I be scared, miss foxie?" Clarabelle giggled.
"Be afraid. Be very afraid," Rae said with a leer.
Rae was scowling and going through the server system in Jelinka's former inner sanctum. She made some notes on her secure laptop and went back to the server terminal.
That was the sixth backdoor that she had found. Two of them had been physical Ethernet connections tied to cell phone dongles.
"You'll pay for this," Rae grumbled under her breath. "I should be home with Cathy right now, not cleaning up after you."
The Yoyodyne gaggle looked up as Rae and Clarabelle entered the lounge.
Rae hooked Clarabelle in a one armed sideways hug. "Hey, Cathy! Look what I caught!"
Kelli looked over and smirked. "Don't cats and foxes eat mice?"
"Only if the mice are really lucky," Cathy replied with a sultry smile. "And she looks most yummy!"
The dick nose mutual support and commiseration group scowled at the happy girls. Lori and Carrie gave them a finger wave. Several of them made a rude gesture. That did nothing but encourage the gaggle to smile even wider.
An annoying fly started buzzing around the table. Rae whipped out what looked like a science fiction ray gun, took quick aim, and fired. A shimmering violet beam hit the fly, and it dropped. Rae held the barrel vertically and blew on it like she was blowing out a candle, then dropped it in her purse in one smooth motion.
The other girls stared at her with jaws agape.
"What? What's a mad scientist without her very own death ray?"
They still looked incredulous, so she pulled it back out, pointed it at herself, and pulled the trigger. The beam did nothing. "It disrupts chitin, which ruins the bug's exoskeleton. It's good for getting rid of body crabs or hair lice. I donated a bunch of wider beamed versions to a few animal shelters to help them get rid of fleas."
The girls were chatting happily when two police officers went over to the dicknose table and conferred briefly. There was much gesticulating, and the one with an orange dildo on his nose pointed at Rae.
One of the officers rolled his eyes. He walked over to Rae, folded his arms, and asked, "All right. What did you do this time, miss Rae?"
Rae held her handbag out to him. "You may examine my despicable bug zapper, mister officer sir. Just don't look down the barrel."
"Do not look into laser with remaining eye," chuckled Cathy.
Sure enough, there was a Class III laser radiation warning sticker on it -- the same sticker that is put on a standard laser pointer.
"I see you've taken the precautions we recommended after that kidnapping attempt." He turned to the rest of the gaggle. "Have a nice night, ladies."
After a little more dancing and a little more drinking, they all went home. Rae, Clarabelle, and Cathy walked out hand in hand and got into a cab.
The cab let them off at Rae and Cathy's condo.
"Are you ready for dinner?" Cathy cackled, dry washing her hands.
"eep"
Rae pulled a rather shapeless bag off of the 3D printer. She stretched it out, stretching the small opening to several times the width of the original form.
Rae picked up a small electronic device and pointed it at the bag. When she pushed a button, the bag shrunk into a vaguely humanoid shape; looking like the skin of a rag doll without the stuffing.
Experiment one was dropping a quantity of modeling clay inside of the bag, then activating it again. The bag formed into the shape of an anthropomorphic fox, complete with muzzle and ears. The excess clay squirted out of the hole, which then shrunk to the point of being nearly invisible.
Rae released the Shapeform Bag and carefully peeled it off of the clay. None of the clay stuck to the inner surface of the bag.
Experiment two was doing the same thing to a somewhat squishy figurine. Sensors placed in the figurine recorded the pressure exerted on its various parts.
Experiment three was smearing GLOO adhesive base all over a vaguely shaped figurine. She installed it into the Shapeform Bag and pressed the first button. The bag shrunk to its anthro fox shape. She pressed the second button, and GLOO activator was secreted from pores inside the bag.
Rae had arranged for Lori's going away party to be held in the main conference room on Lori's last day at work. Everyone, including those who didn't actually like Lori, attended. After all, who's going to turn down free food?
Perhaps the potted palm trees were a bit much, but it's not like they couldn't be used by the landscapers after the party was over. The potted pineapples, bird of paradise flowers, taro plants, and hibiscus gave the place a downright Hawaiian atmosphere.
Which was the point.
But the real giveaway was the big model volcano right in the middle.
Rae, wearing a grass skirt and a bright halter emblazoned with tropical flowers, grabbed Lori by the hand and dragged her into the restroom.
"Hey! This is the executive bathroom!"
"What are they going to do, fire you?" Rae smirked. "Besides, I'm allowed. Just don't tell anyone."
Lori looked nervously at the grass skirt and halter that Rae handed her.
"Hey, why not show off your legs one last time?" Rae snickered.
Lori giggled nervously, then nodded.
Rae led Lori to the party room. She pressed a remote just as Lori entered. The volcano erupted. Everyone cheered, some more than others. Mister Smith did his best to look cheerful.
Most of the women, and some of the men wore grass skirts. Most just put them on over their regular clothes, but Lori's gaggle all wore them with colorful Hawaiian print halters and nothing else.
The traditional Hawaiian meal was enjoyed by all. Some even tried the one finger poi that Rae had ordered. It might not be traditional, but most of them seasoned it with butter, salt, and pepper. Fresh poi has a delicately sweet flavor, but it tastes bland to people who don't appreciate it.
After the meal, Lori opened her gifts.
There were way too many gag gifts, some downright mean. Others were really thoughtful. She particularly liked the crystal mermaid figurine.
Mister Arthur gave her the traditional gold watch, except it was a diver's watch good down to a hundred meters. It had a built in depth gauge and a diving computer.
Lori, Rae, Kelli, Cathy, and a few other girls got a number of furtive glances from the men, and some of the women.
Most of the people stayed an hour or two, but about half a dozen danced well into the night.
Rae sighed as she settled into her work station. She shouldn't have been surprised that Lori wasn't as interested in a super space age wheelchair as she had thought. Yet another lesson about projecting one's desires and preferences onto others.
The first thing she did was to send the super high tech wheelchair that she had meant to give to Lori off to R&D so that they would have another test prototype.
She went down to the junk room and started rooting through a bunch of old prototypes and other spare parts. "Here they are!" she said happily.
Soon, she had two old partially assembled wheelchairs, some spare parts, waterproof bearings and other odds and ends piled onto a cart.
In her workshop, she opened the files for the two failed prototypes and rapidly grabbed pieces from each to assemble a new one. She had to create some new parts and have them rendered in diamond nanothread composite on the 3D printers.
While the extra parts were printing, she opened the package of custom eel skin items she had ordered and laid them out.
She carefully flexed the starfish that she had collected herself and prepared. It was flexible most of the way through, but the top surface was stiff enough to maintain its shape and texture. She had coated it with a thin layer of twenty-four karet gold. She had to use pure gold in order to make the metal flexible and malleable enough stand up to the inevitable flexing that it would receive.
She carefully centered the starfish on the eel skin that would make up the back of the seat, then GLOO'd it into place.
The extra parts were done printing at about the time she was half way through assembling the chair.
Rae grabbed one of her sea rats and smeared it with GLOO adhesive base. She stretched the small opening under the tail of the fur covered Shapeform Bag and carefully inserted the rat.
When she pushed the first button, the bag contracted and fit the rat snugly.
Rae carefully checked around the rat's eyes, making sure that the bag didn't interfere with his eyelids, and that no GLOO was outside of the bag. She also inspected the rat's mouth, nose, and other body openings. As designed, the bag protruded very slightly into the openings.
Rae pressed the second button, and the bag tightened in some places, making the rat look distinctly uncomfortable. She carefully inspected the rat before pressing the third button. Two minutes after the GLOO activator was secreted, the rat relaxed.
In three days, the process was finished. The rat looked a lot like a small sea otter.
Rae looked at the server logs. Sure enough, Jelinka had been using her backdoors to snoop around the servers.
At least, she thought she was snooping around the servers. What she was actually doing was running through a mock-up of the servers, and leaving a very clear and well documented trail.
"A little more rope. Just take a little more rope, my little prey. Soon, you shall be outfoxed," she cackled.
Rae held an elderly sphinx cat that she had gotten from the animal rescue. She shook her head sadly about people who turn their old faithful pets over for euthanasia rather that loving them to the end. She also wondered why anyone in their right mind would want to breed cats to have no fur.
She smeared the cat with GLOO adhesive base and put her into a furry Shapeform Bag. After two minutes, she gave her cuddles and put her into a large cage.
Over the next three days, she gave the kitty plenty of love as she did her work. Then, she took the kitty, who looked like a cross between a cat and a fox, to her home. Cathy cooed with delight and hugged Rae and the young looking cat/fox.
"Aha!" Rae cackled gleefully. "So that's where you were hiding it!"
Jelinka had, for quite some time, been using her position at Yoyodyne to make some extra money on the side. While it wasn't something that the police would be particularly interested in, it was borderline illegal, unauthorized, and definitely unethical.
Rae created a new Bitcoin wallet and used the key that Jelinka had left on the Yoyodyne servers to transfer everything to her new wallet.
Once the changes had been written to the blockchain, she continued her search.
The next time Jelinka logged on, she would be able to see where her money went, but she wouldn't have any way to know for sure who owned the new wallet.
"Gotcha!" Rae gloated. "That almost pays for the extra time I wasted chasing your crap around."
"Hey, tiger. Ready to be the real you?" Rae asked.
"I was ready years ago," Ron answered.
"OK. You know the drill. There is no going back once I push the button. Well, technically, you have eight hours, but trying to peel everything off would be a pain. And the super solvent would be a bad idea, even if we could get more of it."
Ron smiled. "How many times are you going to give me the speech?"
Rae motioned for him to head in to the shower.
By the time he was clean and dry, Rae had everything ready. There was a path of clean towels from the shower to the front of the wheelchair, and the wheelchair was draped.
He sat on the chair and slathered GLOO adhesive base on his feet, making sure to get the area between his toes good and slimed. He continued up his ankles, calves, and about half way up his thighs.
Rae held the Shapeform Bag so that he could stick his feet in. As soon as the legs of the costume were up past his knees, Rae adjusted the control, causing the feet and lower legs of the costume to become snug. Another adjustment, and it was extra tight around his ankles. It wasn't in its final position, but was set so that he could stand on the digitigrade part of the costume.
Rae helped him stand up, then held him by his shoulders while he slathered himself up to his chest. Getting the costume adjusted correctly at his crotch was a bit tricky, but it didn't take long. Rae held the furry outside of the costume, while Ron adjusted himself and the inside of the costume.
Once the costume was past his waist, Rae adjusted the control again, tightening the costume.
Ron covered the rest of his body, including his bald head and his eyelids. He even put some inside his mouth and on both sides of his teeth, being careful not to lick them. He kept his mouth open. Then, he slipped his arms into the costume's arms. Rae pulled the costume up to his neck and adjusted the controls again. Everything from the neck down was snug.
Rae asked him to close his eyes, then stretched the hood over his head, carefully lining up the eyes. She placed the muzzle prosthesis in his open mouth and asked him to bite down. Then, she helped him into the wheelchair.
A few more adjustments to the control, and the suit painfully constricted his feet, tightened on his stomach to take in some of his spare tire, crawled inside his nostrils, ear holes, and other orifices.
Rae read the scanner to make sure that everything was lined up. She double checked his eyes to make sure that there was no GLOO where it shouldn't be.
"This is your last chance to back out. Speak now or forever hold your peace!"
He couldn't say anything, so he nodded.
Rae pushed the final button. GLOO activator was secreted from inside of the costume. Two minutes later, everything was stuck.
She asked him to open his eyes to make sure that they were in good shape. She inspected his eyes, mouth, and all of the other orifices.
He tried to thank her, but he couldn't form the words right. She snickered and gave him a pat on the back. "You'll get it."
Eight hours later, he was wobbling around on his new digitigrade legs.
After three days, the seven foot tiger was walking relatively well, and people could almost figure out what he was trying to say.
A month later, he had an odd accent, but spoke well. He could run as fast as an olympic sprinter, but only for a short distance. The fur, along with the lack of most of his sweat glands, prevented him from losing heat quickly enough.
Rae's computer alarm went off, awakening her from a sound sleep.
She disentangled herself from Cathy and went to her computer.
"Bwa ha ha ha ha!" she cackled. "Now I've got you! You are mine to toy with!"
Rae watched as Jelinka activated some of the programs that she had left hiding on the server. Or, at least, she thought she was activating her programs. What she was actually activating was a set of decoy programs that Rae had installed.
All of Jelinka's attempts to transfer Yoyodyne funds to her own account were carefully traced and documented.
After Jelinka logged out, fully expecting that she would find the funds in her account the next day, Rae sent the log to the detective that she had worked with to set up the sting.
Cathy padded over to Rae and gave her a warm hug. "You're having way too much fun with that," she said sleepily. "You like toying with her like a cat?"
"I'm a cat by injection," Rae said with a leer.
Frank was chatting on the TG chatroom, dreaming of a life that could never be his.
He envied those who had started early enough or were of the right shape to be able to transition. With a nickname like 'stud bear,' he would make a really ugly woman that could in no way ever dream to pass. He was built like a hairy burly hockey player.
The chime for his special email account dinged. Since he rarely got mail on that account, he immediately checked it.
Rae was one of the few who had treated him with neither disdain nor pity. Nor did she treat him like an outsider because he was one of the few who wasn't actively transitioning.
He was sorry to see Rae and Lori leave the support group, but he understood their reasons. The catty remarks and outright hostile behavior of some of them would drive anyone away.
It amazed him that people who weren't comfortable in their own body would judge them so. Is there really that much difference between the trans gendered and the otherkin?
Yet they accused Rae and Lori of making it harder for people to take legitimate trans people seriously. As if the whole '87 genders' or 'how dare you assume my gender?' didn't already do that.
He read the letter, trying hard to believe the offer that she was making. Could she really do that?
But he knew her well enough to know that she was not cruel, and would never play that kind of a prank on him.
The newsroom talking head picked up his newscopy, shook it, and put on a professional smile. "Jelinka Stupharodisk, the woman accused of selling prostheses and chastity devices, has been arrested again. She stands accused of attempting to steal from her former employer, and several counts of hacking their computer system. According to sources within the police department, her former employer provided impressively well documented evidence."
Frank looked again at his phone and compared it to the number on the door. He hadn't known that she lived in such a high class condo.
The door opened at his knock. Rae opened her arms and gave him a heartfelt hug.
Once inside, Rae and Cathy demonstrated their own additions, and showed him a slideshow designed to advertise the prosthetics that Yoyodyne was developing.
Frank felt embarrassed to strip down, but Rae explained that it was necessary for them to get accurate measurements of his body shape.
They set up the cameras and projectors on tripods around him. They talked him through some movements and poses as the cameras took pictures from all angles, some with grids projected on his skin to get accurate measurements.
He hastened to put his clothes back on, and tried to avoid looking at or thinking about his hairy male body.
The boardroom looked like a furry convention. Such attire would be considered extremely unprofessional at most companies, but at Fur-Tech, it was expected -- almost mandatory.
The chairman of the board stood, his tail waving gently. "Has everyone read the letter sent to us by Rae Droidlander?
The members of the board, along with their executive assistants, nodded.
"Thoughts?"
"How the hell did Rae get all of the specs for our tails and ears and stuff?"
The chairman shrugged. "Analyzed our pictures from our social media pages? Hacked our servers? Who knows?"
"Shouldn't we do something about it?"
"And antagonize the company that is making us such a lucrative offer? Not a chance!"
"Anyone try her 'free trial' prostheses?"
Several hands went up.
"Thoughts?" asked the chairman again.
"I hope that everyone realizes that, for a free trial, this stuff is pretty permanent," said a man in a bear suit.
"Considering the fact that she plastered warnings all over the place, I hope so," said Sherri, a young looking lady with the tail and ears of a cat. "I'm really delighted with the changes, especially considering the fact that it knocked about fifteen years off of my apparent age."
"I feel... like me! piped up Marcie, a fully furred mouse girl. "Even if I could get this suit off, I would never want to. I feel free! I feel energetic!"
"That seems to be a side effect of the full body prostheses," a wolf commented.
"Rae is a genius. Not to mention foxy as hell," another wolf said with a leer. "We need to see if we can hire her."
"Not a chance," said the chairman. "It isn't well known, but our sources indicate that she actually owns a significant fraction of Yoyodyne. But she prefers to keep quiet about it."
"Aroooooo! Foxy and rich, too! Where's her contact information?"
"Cool down, mister Big Bad Wolf. She already has a girlfriend, and it looks like they're going to make it a threesome."
"Who's the lucky guy?"
"Girl. Three girls. And no comments on wanting to see into their bedroom!"
The wolf looked crestfallen.
"Besides, there's a rumor that she added another appendage to spice things up."
The wolf shrugged.
Caitlin, a standard neko-type cat woman, stood up. "I'm happy with the tail and ears, but I haven't heard from any of the full fur suit people. How did that go?"
Joseph, a badger, stood up. "Well, I was hesitant because of the whole permanence issue, but I really wanted it to work. After some research, and talking to the digitigrade tiger at Yoyodyne, I decided to take the plunge."
"And?"
"Actually, it was simplicity itself. I loaded the software into two old cell phones, plugged in the little gizmo that creates grid lines, and pranced in front of the setup."
"Pranced?"
"Turned around so that it could photograph all sides, moved around as specified by the instructions, and quit when it told me it was done. The electronic control for the fur suit received the data. I climbed into the suit. I pushed a few buttons. It shrunk to fit and GLOO'd itself to me. Simplicity itself."
"So, how do you like it?"
The badger smiled broadly. "It works as specified. Everything is sensitive. My wife loves cuddling up to her big teddy-badger. We'll sell thousands of them!"
"I wonder why Yoyodyne is asking us to distribute them," a Doberman said suspiciously.
"They are a big company, and have lots of very conservative customers. Furry fandom doesn't fit their projected corporate image -- for all that they have a number of furries working for them." said the chairman.
"She said in her letter," the neko said, rolling her eyes at the Doberman, "that she is impressed with our ability to counsel and design a custom look for our clients. She wants us to put our strengths together. A strategic alliance, she called it."
"I wonder if we can branch out and sell the youth, weight loss, and trans versions." mused a fully furred white rabbit.
"Nope. They are keeping that market for themselves," said the chairman
"Be happy that they are offering us what they are. Otherwise, they might cut seriously into our business," commented the kitty girl.
"Not everyone wants to become their fursona permanently," said a pure white fox.
"Enough do that they would take a significant part of the market," mused the chairman.
"It sounds like everyone agrees that we should take them up on their generous offer."
Everyone in the room gave the thumbs up.
"I recommend that we allow the owners of our standard prostheses and suits to turn them in for credit toward the permanent versions. That will promote goodwill, and maybe get a few more customers."
"How so?"
"Well, someone might ruminate over whether to get the temporary or permanent version. If he can get credit, he can go out and get the temporary version right away instead of vacillating forever."
"Good point."
Rae and Cathy led Frank to a well appointed suite of rooms.
After showering and removing all of his hair, he trod the path of towels to the middle of the cameras that were set up. A quick reading assured Rae that his size hadn't changed significantly.
Donning the body suit was easier than the tiger suit because they didn't have to deal with digitigrade legs, and both components of the GLOO were contained within the shapeform bag. He was inside the suit in less than five minutes. Two minutes later, the GLOO was stuck solid. Rae and Cathy both gave him a hug.
He had feminine flawless hairless skin and a luxurious mane of chestnut brown hair, but he was still shaped like a man, albeit one with breasts.
But that was temporary.
Even though he had a badge that gave him the run of much of the Yoyodyne facilities, he chose to remain in the suite for a while. He wore a light robe so that he could shuck it off whenever the alarm dinged to remind him to stand between the cameras for his measurements. He had agreed to act as a guinea pig in exchange for a free treatment.
After eight hours, he had a definite feminine shape. He was just finishing with his measurements when Rae and Cathy knocked on the door.
He threw on his robe and opened the door.
Once inside, Rae gave her a wolf whistle and a thumbs up. "Looking good, Candice!"
Candice smiled and wrapped Rae in a hug. "Thank you so much! You've literally made all of my dreams come true!" she said in a light soprano.
Rae smiled. "Let me be the first to use the correct pronoun." She turned to Cathy. "She's looking good, isn't she?"
She turned back to Candice and handed her an envelope. "Here's all your paperwork. We'll take pictures for your driver's license, passport, and all of that stuff just before you leave."
The talk show host sat behind his desk.
"Tonight, we have a special treat. Rae Droidlander, the genius who has been busily developing new technology that uses GLOO, is here to explain the changes that we can look forward to in the future."
A tall shapely woman wearing impeccably tailored though somewhat revealing business attire strode in from the wings.
"Miss Rae, please tell us how you came to work with GLOO."
Rae smiled. "It started when one of our board of directors members asked me to briefly check the stuff out. I soon found out that one of the reasons that it was permanent was that it could make direct connections to our nervous system."
"Is that what convinced you to spend so much time researching it?"
"Indeed," she replied. "I really like the prostheses that Furtech makes, but I figured that GLOO could make them even better. After all, the tail in particular has some, err, inconvenient limitations. Research led to more research, and I was soon developing prostheses that could not only add new parts, but which could replace amputated limbs, add fur or remove hair, change body shape, and even reverse aging." She smiled. "I have always been careful to preserve myself as much as possible, but I now definitely look a lot younger than I actually am."
The host looked impressed. The audience applauded.
"Surprisingly, adding external ears somehow gave me better hearing. Also, I developed an underwater life support prosthesis that allows people to hold their breath long term."
A video of her sea rats happily swimming in their tanks was played.
"All of this will be available through Yoyodyne. The various furry prostheses will be available through Furtech. After all, they are unmatched in their ability to match human to fursona, and design the perfect look for their customers. By the way, they don't plan on dropping their current line of products. Not everyone wants to wear a tail permanently."
Rae and the talk show host discussed the new products at length. They also discussed the cultural and psychological aspects of the strong desire that some have to wear a body other than the one that they were born with. She helped dispel a lot of the myths attached to the otherkin and trans gendered.
"You seem very passionate about your products."
"I have the body that I want, and I have watched dozens of friends and coworkers achieve their dreams. Without exception, they are happier and more productive. Even if we never sold this to others, and even if we didn't care deeply about their happiness, it would be worth it just for the increase in productivity."
"And still," the talks how host commented, "There is a growing movement out there to ban the stuff."
Rae scowled. "They are using scare tactics, and they are lobbying our elected officials. If they succeed, they will be depriving the world of a better life for all. I suspect that the elite will still be able to take advantage of my work, though. Not that I will help them at all if they manage to steal the technology from the rest of the world."
Rae pulled a fox tail off of her keychain, plugged it into her computer, and rebooted. The hardware encrypted USB drive booted and asked for a password.
Rae typed a long paragraph that she had memorized. The hardware encryption unlocked, and GRUB (GRand Universal Bootloader) loaded.
Rae chose Fox Tails, which is her custom modified Tails Linux operating system.
Fox Tails booted, then asked Rae for the passwords for the system and the special data drive that she keeps triple encrypted.
She entered a paragraph for each of them, and was finally shown the familiar Debian system.
She looked over the various dicknose situations. Most seem to have learned their lessons. She did have to point one of her pet vigilante groups at one, and sent the victim instructions on where to get his situation solved.
After cleaning up the various messes, she prepared to shut down.
Suddenly, a message was displayed.
"We are your nanites. We need to talk."
Like I said, it's all Laika's fault. Read all about Rae's buddy Lori here:
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/74835/72-hours-merman...
And don't forget to read part two and three and...